In the post, Dear Pioneer Woman, Continued, author Ree Drummond gives advice on childbirth to one reader, including the following sentiments about her third birth.

THAT said, my most wonderful childbirth experience was my third, when I pushed through and made it without an epidural. I felt every single contraction and I got to scream a primal scream when my boy finally burst forth into the world. It’s the birth I think most about, and, ironically, the one I remember most fondly.

Heather Armstrong, author of Dooce, recently gave birth to a baby girl whose birth and subsequent adrenaline rush she describes in the post, Familiar Territory.

The adrenaline rush I experienced after going through a natural birth was unlike anything I’ve ever lived through before. It was so powerful that I didn’t sleep for over 48 hours, and I was giddy, so happy and high and certain that I could move mountains.

Scared? Get a medical device to track your baby’s kicks. This piece of electronic junk product records the number of kicks per day. And if your baby sometimes kicks noticeably less, you can totally freak out and head to the OB for an unnecessary appointment. Whee!

So when the batteries start to die, do you assume your baby is dying, too? Is this supposed to be a suitable replacement for kick counts?

For those who’ve been following the saga of asshole-wit Joel Stein’s road to fatherhood, his take on placenta-cookery (aka placentophagy) won’t shock you: “when Cassandra’s looks fade in her 50s, there’s no way I’m putting up with this crap.”

Midwife in the Clouds and Molly from Talk Birth both wrote about when a c-section is a positive experience in a woman’s life.

But She Liked Her C-Section (Midwife in the Clouds, writing about a home birth mom who requested to go to the hospital during birth after learning her baby was breech)

After the c-section she was phenomenal. Almost as though the meds never were even in her body. She was given the baby instantly (a million women with my client - I doubt there was going to be a lot of arguing with all of us on THAT issue) and she nursed with the BIGGEST smile on her face.

She felt strong. She felt triumphant. She believed and believes she made the best decision for her and her daughter. She enjoyed every bit of her labor and thought her section was necessary and perfect. I could only marvel at that smile. I will never forget how big it was and how wonderful.

I also think it is possible to acknowledge the magnitude of becoming a mother, regardless of what happened with the birth–having a baby is a big deal no matter what! Though I’m obviously a huge advocate of natural childbirth, I truly believe that cesareans are often an act of personal courage. I also think that all births are rites of passage and are profound transformations and initiations into motherhood. So, though while some women may have missed out on the sense of personal power that often accompanies a natural birth, they’ve all taken significant and meaningful journeys of their own.

It’s going to be a long, hot summer in Washington as Congress tries to churn out some sort of health care reform legislation. By my count, there are at least five different proposals on the table and honestly, it’s starting to look like there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Things are getting complicated, messy and expensive. Some have even suggested health care reform is too hard to do, at least right now.

The author of this article cites a JAMA study that shows numbers that conflict with the Health Grades study (cited in article) which showed 195,000 iatrogenic deaths, but only took patients covered by Medicare into account. According to the article, “These statistics add up to 225,000 patient deaths per year as the result of medical errors.”

On Tuesday, the IOM released that report, “Initial National Priorities for Comparative Effectiveness Research“, which includes a list of 100 top topics (out of 1,268 unique suggestions) that the authoring committee believes should be prioritized for funding.

The priority list includes several childbirth related topics, including this: “Compare the effectiveness of birthing care in freestanding birth centers and usual care of childbearing women at low and moderate risk.” The report doesn’t specify what “usual care” is, so we can only assume that it means birth in a hospital with an ob/gyn. The list also doesn’t include details on how the effectiveness of birthing care will be judged, but we’ll certainly keep an eye out for more information!

Found your article while surfing for big baby info. I’m pregnant with our fifth baby. My second baby was born 11lb, 6oz, in a hospital with shoulder distocia. It was a horrible experience. (He is fine now)

My fourth baby was two weeks overdue, and the ultrasounds predicted a large baby. I was really scared to go through another shoulder distocia, but on the other hand, trusted my midwives so much more than the hospital staff of previous births.

It ended up being my easiest birth, with only one stitch. She was born under water, weighing 11 lbs, 11 and one half ounces!

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2007 FDA WARNING which should be included in the material risks section of any consent form for narcotics during childbirth and the post-partum period.

Nursing Mothers Should Use Codeine with Caution: FDA Warning

Women who are ultra-rapid metabolizers of codeine may inadvertently expose their babies to lethal levels of morphine if they take the drug while breastfeeding. At least one infant has recently died from a morphine overdose linked to contaminated breast milk -- the mother had been taking codeine for episiotomy pain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a warning related to the potential dangers of the drug for nursing mothers and babies. According to the F.D.A., the only way to know whether someone can be classified as an ultra-rapid metabolizer is through genetic testing, and the only FDA-approved genetic test for metabolization currently available has not been widely used to detect codeine, specifically, so the results in this instance may not be entirely trustworthy.

The agency says nursing mothers taking any narcotic pain reliever should be alert to the following signs and symptoms of infant overdose:

Breast fed babies normally nurse every two to three hoursBreast fed babies should not sleep for more than four hours at a time.

"Doula Momma" plagiarized that consent form from my June 16th blog post entitled Don’t Let This Happen To You #22: PART 3. A Discussion About Elective Primary Cesarean Section & Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request (CDMR)! She also stole my title! "Do you know what you are signing" was the title to my anesthesia consent form post entitled "Consent for Anesthesia: Do You Know What You Are Signing?" on May 5th! Grrrrrr! I dont think that is very fair!